Turn 158
Athens completes one more Phalanx, and we finally ready do the thing Greeks were longing to do for ages now: eat vegetables.
So I declare on Napoleon.
Metal Pig bands start playing in front of the French embassy all at once, and now we can’t even talk to France, since all the diplomats are already deaf, dead or converted Greek. While I’m filing a request for new ones, here’s the initial disposition for you:
Home Phalanx is in charge of catching a stray Archer:
The stack of doom will move one tile NW.
It’s somewhat open to counterattack, but I want to cut Napoleon’s Copper as quickly as possible.
Turn 159
French Archer creeps towards Athens. I keep my Phalanx on a hill – I want to catch the perpetrator in the open.
Napoleon starts rerouting his troops towards Orleans. By that point, he somehow lost his fifth city.
Turn 160
Catapults do catapult things, and Orleans defenses are down to 16%. I move a Phalanx-Spearman pair to deal with the Pigs Archer, and I hope Golden Chariot will take the bait and attack them afterwards.
(
it’s not me who left resource bubbles on, it’s Napoleon, I swear. Also, no more screenshot editing on my side, it looks like crap)
Anyway. Another Phalanx of mine goes to pillage and plunder Copper Wenches. Now, there aren’t really any wenches out there, but the name seems to boost morale, so we’ll go on with it.
Back home, French Archer keeps trying to sneak up on Athens.
Turn 161
Pigs Archer is down, and Copper Wenches are taken.
At home front, French Archer is apparently lost in the beauty of Greek countryside. Since it’s a wide open country side with no defense modifiers, I attack him and, of course, lose with 95% chance of winning. Spoiler: it’s going to become a theme. Thankfully, I kept one more Phalanx at home just in case, and it finishes the job.
Back in France, our Phalanx-Spearman pair is screwed by a random Axeman. I pull survived Spearman back to the stack, not willing to leave him in the open or move to finish his buddy’s killer, since he’ll just get another axe in the face, and we’re kind of low on spears here.
I also send one worker towards Metal Pig – I want to finish the road to France as soon as Orleans is ours.
Turn 162
Remember the mortally wounded Axeman that took out my Phalanx on previous screenshot? He gets himself a double kill, slaughtering my Copper raiders as well. Maybe they were too busy trying to find wenches to fight him, I don’t know.
My main stack attacks Orleans. I lose another Phalanx, this time against 98% win chance, but the city is ours and all the catapults are all fine.
Turn 163
Now we have a law that forbids looking for wenches in a copper mine. Yay.
I switch to Metal Casting and send my already in place Worker to connect Orleans to the road network. A Spearman and a Phalanx are left to garrison the captured city; the rest of the stack is more or less fine and go on to siege Paris. They are not going to attack until healed and reinforced, but I hope that some random Greek guys camping on a hill near his capital will keep Napoleon from counterattacks.
Turn 164
A wild Chariot appears and destroys my Worker. Since Phalanxes have only defense bonuses against Chariots, I move Orleans’ spearman to splat it without risking more losses.
Turn 165
Orleans’ spearman is joined by a Catapult and a Phalanx. They go on to reinforce my stack of doom, that’s currently sitting on a hill in the vicinity of Paris.
The Greeks can hear the garrison. It is not pleasant.
Back at home, I get ready to start courthouses after one more military production cycle is completed. City Maintenance issues are going to kick in rather soon, and I feel like I already have enough units in the field.
Turn 166
Another Chariot appears and attacks my Phalanx in Orleans. Phalanx loses.
Oh, well. It seems like my reinforcements will have some work to do before they can join the main force.
Hopefully, those were the last Chariots Napoleon had. The Catapult my guys were hanging out with is joined by more Phalanxes, so it’s safe.
Turn 167
I leave a now veteran Phalanx in charge of Orleans and resume moving my reinforcements towards Paris.
Turn 168
We lost Orleans to a Chariot. Again. In other good news: more French troops are coming and I lose another 80%+ fight.
Thankfully, those new French troops used to garrison Paris, so I think it should actually make things easier.
Oh, and Ptolemy is born in Metal Pig.
Turn 169
Chariots are swarming Orleans. I try to attack Paris that now have only 3 units defending it, and end up losing two catapults and three 85% winning chance fights. Paris stands - it has one Axeman left, the same one who slaughtered two Phalanxes in the beginning of my campaign.
I also apparently forgot to make a screenshot because of trying to throw my PC out of the window, so here’s a cat picture for you.
Turn 170
A part of me begs to reload, but that’s not how we do things around here. The Greeks press on. To emphasize Greek resilience and abs, Leonidas is born in Metal Pig.
What’s left of my first reinforcement wave joins the survivors of my doomstack, leaving one lone spearman behind. And that guy, that guy just keeps killing more and more Chariots, although in this particular turn he’s taking a day off and joins another wave of reinforcements because of some sudden health problems.
Hey, and more good news, everyone: Napoleon moves an Archer and a Chariot to Paris.
Yeah.
I actually played up until turn 190, but I’ll need another sit-down to write it up. Will the Glorious Greeks prevail? Will we see Napoleon’s head on a pole? Are there really any wenches to find in a copper mine? Find tuned for our next episode!